Ramanujan Hegde is a biochemist whose research has deepened our understanding of how newly made proteins are localised correctly inside cells, and how errors during protein maturation are recognised and disposed. These processes are important because the accumulation of abnormal proteins is disruptive to cell function, and underlies numerous diseases.

Manu’s group discovered a widely conserved pathway needed by a subset of proteins to reach their correct membrane-embedded destination. Their studies of such protein targeting pathways are revealing how membrane proteins are accurately recognised by the machinery responsible for their proper localisation and insertion. Manu’s work has also shown that even modest failures of individual proteins to reach their correct cellular location can lead to neurodegeneration, and that cells have specialized pathways to identify these wayward proteins and target them for destruction.

Manu’s research contributions have been recognized by the R.R. Bensley award in Cell Biology in 2008, and his election as a Member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation in 2013.